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RIC Music Preview – Spring 2011

On March 11, the RIC Spring Choral Concert will feature RIC faculty and student composers and arrangers. Performing ensembles include the RIC Chorus, Chamber Singers and Women’s Chorus, conducted by Teresa Coffman. A highlight of the evening will be the premiere of RIC instructor James Bohn’s "Metropolis" for mixed chorus, soloists, and selected instruments.

The Bon Voyage Choral Concert on April 29 will showcase the RIC Chorus, Chamber Singers, and Women’s Chorus (Teresa Coffman, choral conductor) in a performance to celebrate and “send off” graduating senior music majors. The concert will feature famous and lesser-known choruses from opera.

The astonishing variety of American music for wind band is the subject of "American Tapestry," a RIC Wind Ensemble concert on March 4. Judith Lynn Stillman, artist-in-residence at RIC, is featured as piano soloist on Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s "L’Union." Also on the program, RIC theatre professor Jamie Taylor narrates Aaron Copland’s "Lincoln Portrait," and the music of Donald Grantham and Leonard Bernstein.

"Innovations" is the title of the Wind Ensemble’s April 22 concert. Guests include composer Steven Bryant and Verena M. Moesenbichler-Bryant, who is featured as guest conductor of Karel Husa’s Al Fresco.

The music of Eric Whitacre and Charles Ives will be on the program, and the winner of the 2011 Senior Concerto Competition will perform with the RIC Wind Ensemble.

The Wednesday Chamber Music Series will offer four exciting recitals this spring, in the theme, "Masterworks at Sapinsley Hall." Mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips, a RIC grad, and pianist Judith Lynn Stillman, director of the Chamber Music Series, will perform in afternoon and evening concerts on Feb. 9.

Rhode Island College’s faculty ensemble, Narragansett Brass Quintet will perform on March 23. Flutist Carol Wincenc, who has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago, Saint Louis, Atlanta and London Symphonies, will perform with Stillman on piano in an April 13 performance.

The RIC Symphony Orchestra will present the 16th Annual Samuel and Esther Chester Performance Award Concert on March 7. Soprano Diana McVey will be featured soloist for Richard Strauss’s "Four Last Songs." Also on the program are Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 and the "Festina lente" by Arvo Pärt. Edward Markward conducts.

On April 25, the Symphony Orchestra presents an all-Beethoven program for the 33rd Annual Bicho Family Memorial Scholarship Concert. This year’s soloist is acclaimed pianist Michael Boriskin, who will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor. Also on the program is Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5 in C Minor.

The Proteus String Quartet, featuring members of RIC’s music faculty, will make its second-ever appearance on April 11. The quartet, which is in residence at the college, is comprised of John Sumerlin on violin, Samuel Breene on violin, Susan Culpo on viola and Steven Laven on cello.

Two Chamber Music at Rhode Island College concerts – on Feb. 27 and April 10 – will be conducted by John Sumerlin. The RIC Chamber Orchestra and Small Ensembles will perform.

The RIC Concert Jazz Band Spring Concert on May 2 is led by music director Joseph Foley.

In the RIC Opera Workshop Performance on May 8, students will perform scenes from operas by Marc Blitzstein, George Frideric Handel, Gian-Carlo Menotti, W.A. Mozart and Otto Nicolai, among others as well as the entire second Act of "Le nozze di Figaro" by Mozart. Co-directors are Edward Markward and Susan Rodgers, with Christina Breindel on piano.

For general information on RIC Music, RIC Theatre and RIC Dance events, call (401) 456-9883 or visit www.ric.edu/pfa .

See all the fall 2011 performing and fine arts events.

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